Heaven & Earth
by A.J. Mitchell
Summary: UPDATED! Buffy The Vampire Slayer Stargate SG1 Crossover. Due to an unexpected turn of events Xander is taken on at the SGC and assigned to SG1. A year and a half later he must return to Sunnydale with his new teammates when it is discovered that a ro
1. Prolouge & Chapter 1

**HEAVEN & EARTH **

by A.J. Mitchell

Disclaimer: "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" is property of Joss Whedon, Mutant Enemy, etc. - "Stargate SG-1" is property of Jonathan Glassner & Brad Wright and MGM. 

Rating: PG-14 (violence & language) 

Pairings: Buffy/Xander, Willow/Tara, Jack/Sam? 

Crossover: Buffy The Vampire Slayer & Stargate SG-1. 

Timeline: This story takes place between the end of Season 3 and the end of Season 5 on Buffy & between "Fair Game" in Season 3 and the end of Season 4 on SG-1. - AU. 

Spoilers: Anything up to the end of Season 5 on Buffy, and to the end of Season 4 on SG-1. 

Summary: Due to an unexpected turn of events Xander is taken on at the SGC and assigned to SG-1. A year and a half later he must return to Sunnydale with his new teammates when it is discovered that a rogue Goa'uld is loose on Earth. - The Scoobies have made due in light of Xander's absence, but when Glory arrives and Dawn is in danger they realize that they need help. Little do any of them know just how intertwined their fates will become. 

Author's Note(s): (1)I thought I'd never write a crossover, but this idea just hit me one day and before I knew it I had 5 pages of notes. (2)Thoughts in italics. (3)Joyce isn't dead here. Why? Because I say so. (4)And thanks to White Werewolf for his Phoenix Risings series that first gave me the idea for writing an SG-1 story. 

Feedback: Yes, please. Feedback is most important. It nourishes me. ajmitchell2003yahoo.ca

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Prologue

**The Initiative - Sunnydale, California - May 16th, 2000**

Willow's eyes closed as she began to recite the incantation while the other two in the circle watched her closely. "The power of the Slayer and all who wield it. Last to Ancient First. We invoke thee. Grant us thy domain of primal strength. Accept us and the powers we possess." She paused to take a breath and then continued. "Link us mind and heart with spirit joined. Let the hand encompass us. Do thy will." Reaching down Willow drew a tarot card from the deck next to her. "Spiritus... spirit." When she was done she placed the card face up on the floor in front of her and then drew the next card from the top of the deck and passed it to her right. Tara accepted her card and spoke.

"Animus... heart." Her card too was then laid on the floor. Willow drew a third card and handed it left to Giles who completed the triad.

"Sophus... mind." Once his card was placed in front of him Willow drew the final card and placed it in the centre of the circle.

"And Manus... the hand." The redheaded witch took a deep breath and pressed on to the end. "We enjoin that we may inhabit the vessel. The hand, daughter of Sineya, the first of the Ones."

Buffy rounded the last corner and found Adam leaning over a large bank of control panels his eyes focused on the black and white monitor that showed the carnage going on throughout the Initiative. "Fun, isn't it?" she asked. The hulking creature turned to face her with a smile on its patchwork face.

"I do appreciate violence."

"Good." Buffy charged at Adam and leapt up into the air to attack him, but he stopped her with a hard punch and sent her rolling along the floor. She crouched and then came to her feet, springing forward and unleashing a series of punches to the demon-cyborg's midsection. They were having no effect and finally Adam caught her fist and sent her careening into a control panel face first. As she was stunned he swung her around and threw her into the wall where she fell in a heap. As Buffy struggled to get up she could see Adam advancing, his demon arm outstretched as the skewer in it was unsheathed. She got to her feet and knew what he was going to do next. As he thrust his arm towards her, Buffy sidestepped the attack and turned to grab his arm. As she did she broke the skewer over her knee, rendering it useless. Adam tried to re-group, but he was too slow as Buffy caught him in the face with a right hook making him stumble. Buffy grinned at him. "Broke your arm." Adam grinned back, unconcerned.

"Got another," he said as he looked down to his other arm and Buffy watched in disbelief as his mechanical parts morphed into a mini gun. "I've been upgrading." Buffy started to run across the room, but Adam was quick and a split second later he had raised the gun and Buffy could feel the rounds impacting the floor behind her. She vaulted over a control panel just as bullets tore through the front missing her by only inches. Adam continued to fire into the panel as a haze of gun-smoke and showers of sparks filled the air.

"We implore thee. Admit us. Bring us to the vessel. Take us... now!" As Willow shouted the last part of the chant her head was thrown back and it was as if she was traveling with the power they were channeling. She watched as she raced along corridors, hurtling through the air as a formless essence. Giles and Tara were experiencing it too and they all saw as one as they hurtled around the last corner and saw Buffy crouched behind the control panel and then...

Adam chambered a grenade round and launched it, causing the panel to shatter in a hail of metal shards, sparks and smoke. As the smoke began to clear Buffy rose, unharmed, from behind the ruins of the machine; her eyes glowing orange. "You can't last much longer." Adam surmised as he readied to attack again.

"We can." Buffy challenged, but it wasn't just her who spoke. The voice that was issuing forth from the Slayer was now a combination of her, Willow, Tara and Giles' voices all speaking in perfect unison. "We are forever." Buffy began to chant in Sumerian and Adam raised his gun-arm.

"Interesting." he said in a curious tone that opposed his actions. He fired directly at Buffy only to watch as the hundreds of rounds impacted on an invisible barrier causing the very air itself to ripple like water. "Very interesting." Adam begrudged as Buffy continued to chant. Switching tactics Adam loaded another grenade round and fired. Time seemed to slow to a crawl as Buffy waved her hand, the grenade slowing as well until it finally stopped in mid air before reaching her and then suddenly scattering into three white doves. Adam aimed his gun-arm at her again, but with a circular motion of her hand Buffy reversed the earlier transformation and his arm was once again just an arm. Adam strode forward and tried to attack her, but she blocked every punch. When he was done she got in a few of her own sending him reeling backwards into the second control panel. As he struggled to get to his knees Buffy grabbed him by the throat and she was rewarded with the closest thing to a look of terror that Adam could muster. "But how can you...?"

"You could never hope to grasp the source of our power." She picked him up and tossed him through the air as if he was no more than a rag doll, but he managed to flip in mid-air and bounced off the control panel instead, landing on the floor. Buffy pulled him to his feet and spun him around to face her. She jumped up and bicycle kicked him until his back hit the wall. With a final push she slammed him against the reinforced concrete bunker and drove her fist inside his chest. Adam tried to force her hand back, but to no avail. Finally Buffy pulled her arm out clutching a glowing green cylinder in her hand. She paused to look at it. "But yours is right here." With a final groan Adam slumped to the ground, dead and Buffy was left alone in the control room. Slowly she spoke another incantation in Sumerian and watched as Adam's power core rose into the air and then seemed to fold in on itself until it finally vanished in a flash of light.

The rest all ran together in a kind of blur. Riley had come and they had managed to get back to 314 to find the others shaking off the effects of the spell and Spike doing his best to ingratiate himself to them once again. They had all made a break for it and tried to save as many scientists and soldiers as they could while they fended off the vampires and demons that had been set loose. After an exhausting climb back up the elevator shaft they were out and so they strode out of the frat house victorious once again.

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**Summers' Home - Sunnydale, California - May 17th, 2000**

Buffy Summers sat on the front porch of her house and watched as the last rays of sun filtered through the clouds, turning them orange and seeming to set the sky aflame. Although it was nearly dark she wasn't thinking about vampires, or patrol routes. She wasn't thinking about Willow, or Giles, or her mother. She wasn't thinking about Riley. She wasn't even thinking about their defeat of Adam. As she gazed at the darkening sky, watching the sun slip away, Buffy was thinking about Xander Harris.

He'd been gone for almost a year now and Buffy still felt that hole in her life where he had been. She knew that Willow and Giles felt it and even to a certain extent her mother too. The thing that surprised her was how big the hole was and how after 11 months it had only gotten bigger. If she'd ever been asked, Buffy knew she would never be able to define the role that Xander had played in her life. He had never fit in any of the comfortable molds that she so readily tried to slip people into. Willow was her best female friend. Giles was her mentor and at times she almost desperately wanted to slide him into spot labeled father. Riley was, of course, her boyfriend. But try as she might Buffy had never been able to fit Xander into any one role. He almost went into the best male friend category, except that his feelings for her wouldn't allow him to go there. But why? How did that change how she felt about him? She had always told herself that it didn't, but she couldn't deny that when she first met him she'd been attracted to Xander. Honestly she didn't know how she felt about him, she never really had and that was why she could never quantify him. That didn't make it any easier to not have him around though. . Everyone thought it was a great idea for Xander to travel across America and discover himself. Even Willow, who was most worried of all, thought that it was a great opportunity. So off he went, sticking to the Southwestern states to start with and he had made it as far as Colorado when the letter came. It looked the same as any of the other letters he had sent them over the course of his journey. It arrived in a plain white envelope addressed to all of them, care of Rupert Giles. They all went over to Giles' apartment and awaited the reading of the letter. But this time it was different. Giles didn't read the letter aloud so the rest of them could hear it. He took one brief skim of the double-sided page and hurriedly handed the paper off to Willow, while he pulled out his handkerchief and began to polish his glasses with a vengeance. Buffy was pondering this when she heard a sob wrench its way out of the petite redhead. With tears in her eyes Willow gave the letter to Buffy. Upon reading it herself, she was shocked to say the least. Apparently Xander had been offered a position with the Air Force and while the reasons for said offer were not relayed in detail it was clear that the circumstances had something to do with their friends with the yellow eyes and bumpy foreheads. The position was at a base in Colorado and Xander informed them that from then on that is where he would be living, per the conditions of his employment. He said that he couldn't go into any specifics about what his new job was, or even the kind of work he was involved in, but he reassured them that it was important work in the same way that Buffy's job was important work. That part was somewhat cryptic and not like Xander at all, but they took it to mean that whatever he was doing, he was keeping other people safe. He ended by telling them that he'd miss them all terribly and that he would write and call as often as he could and if he was lucky he might even be able to visit in time.

Now almost a year had passed, but he still hadn't managed to come back and see them and his letters were few and far between. Not that they had ever been that much to speak of in the first place. Due to the nature of his new position (whatever it was) he was sworn to secrecy and since his work seemed to take up most of his time there was never much he could put in his letters to them. They knew that he was okay and that he was happy. Buffy supposed that was enough. It would have to be. Still she couldn't help but miss him and the little selfish corner of herself said that she'd be better off if she didn't. She sometimes got the impression that Riley was jealous of her Xander-shaped friend. She couldn't figure out why. Xander wasn't even in the same state anymore and she hadn't talked to him for months; there was nothing to get jealous about. Buffy didn't know what she would have done without Riley. He understood her in a way that no one had since Angel. He knew about both sides of her life and was actively involved in both. He was kind and caring; maybe a little insensitive at times, but then so was she. The most important thing was that being with him gave her a sense of normalcy that she would have otherwise lacked. Being in a caring, committed relationship was the most normal thing in either of their lives and they both needed that. It seemed that they were perfect for each other. So why Riley's seeming jealousy? And why did Buffy feel miserable most of the time?

She shook her head and looked up again. The sun had set and the stars were staring to emerge from the blackness of the night. _Woolgathering again, Buffy,_ her mother's voice chided her from inside her head. As she gave one final look upwards, this time towards the full moon that hung over her head, she picked up her bag and headed off across town to meet Riley for patrol.

* * *

Chapter 1

**Cheyenne Mountain Complex - Colorado - July 10th, 1999**

"Welcome home, SG-1. We'll debrief in one hour." General Hammond's voice boomed over the intercom in the gateroom. As the four figures walked down the ramp, Colonel Jack O'Neill turned to look back at the rest of his team.

"Well _that_ was a fun trip."

"Jack, the telemetry the MALP sent back showed that the ecosystem had evolved to survive in a nocturnal state." Daniel reminded him.

"Yeah, well it never said anything about it being dark 22 hours a day." He turned forward again and gestured upwards towards the surface. "I don't know about the rest of you, but I could do with some sunlight right about now."

"I too would benefit from seeing the sun." Teal'c acceded.

"Well I could do with a shower my- whoa!" Carter blurted out as she was knocked aside. Jack turned around in time to see a dark shape rushing down the ramp towards him just as the wormhole dissipated. In the control room General Hammond saw it too.

"Seal off the gateroom!" he ordered. Sam was getting to her feet while Daniel was helping Teal'c up, leaving Jack to deal with the mysterious figure. He tried to block its path, but only succeeded in being thrown across the room into the wall. As the unknown intruder reached the door Sam opened fire and hit it squarely in the back. With only a snarl of pain the gate-crasher continued on and disappeared from their sight. By the time the team reached the hallway the dark presence was gone. The General ordered the entire facility locked down and hurried down to the gateroom. "What was that, Colonel?"

"No idea, sir." Jack replied, still winded from his fall.

"It must've come through the gate after us, sir." Carter theorized.

"Did you see any sign of inhabitants on the planet?"

"We did not, General Hammond." Teal'c replied.

"Whatever it was must have been close by, watching us and then came through the gate before it closed." Daniel said.

"Well it sure was fast enough to do that." Jack confirmed as he rubbed the back of his head where he'd hit the wall. Suddenly the intercom blared to life and Sergeant Davis' voice filled the room.

"Sir, the front gate just reported in. The intruder broke through our guards before they had a chance to lock down the main doors. He's gone sir." Hammond cursed and strode out of the embarkation room with SG-1 following behind him. When they reached the control room Davis handed the General the phone.

"Did you get a look at which way he went?... Okay, good. ... No stay there in case it decides to come back and double the guard on every access point." He hung up the handset and turned to the premiere team of the SGC. "Alright, I want you to go after him and I want... whatever it is brought back here. Use any means necessary."

"Yes, sir." Jack turned to Carter as they rushed down the stairs towards the armory. "Obviously bullets don't stop this thing, so we load up with Zats and I'll take the other staff weapon." The newly-appointed Major nodded, so O'Neill called back over his shoulder, "Let's move out people!"

Xander Harris fumbled with the road map as he tried to keep his eyes on the road, or as much of the road as his headlights illuminated. "This is something they should have taught us in school," he griped, "map folding 101." From what he could tell, in the near pitch black of the night, he was driving along a mostly disused secondary highway, which explained the lack of street lights. He passed a sign a little while back that had read CHEYENNE MOUNTAIN - 5 MILES and from what little he could figure out from the map he knew there was a military base around there somewhere. Finally he gave up and just balled up the map and threw it in the backseat, which was already littered with fast food containers, coffee cups and candy bar wrappers. He sighed and tried to focus on the road ahead of him.

His road trip of self discovery was not going quite the way he had planned. Now three weeks in and he hadn't discovered much, except that he could change a flat tire and was pretty good at stretching out in the front seat to catch a few minutes of sleep. The entire trip was almost derailed in Oxnard when he thought the car was going to break down on him and leave him stranded there. Luckily it was just a minor problem, easily fixed and after just a night he was on his way again. Now he found himself in Colorado and if he wanted to go any further he was going to have to find some work for a few days and make some traveling money. He yawned and rubbed his eyes with his free hand, trying to fight off the weariness that kept politely asking to be let in. He started to reach back for the map again in the hopes of finding a secluded spot to stop and get a few hours of sleep when a shape descended from the air above and landed heavily on the front of the car. The vehicle came to a screeching halt as the force of the impact crushed the hood and mangled the engine beyond recognition. "What the hell?!" Xander cried out as he instinctively slammed on the brakes which stopped the car from rolling and pitched the shadowy unknown mass off into the woods. Xander scrambled out of the car, flashlight in hand to examine the extent of the damage and he cursed when he saw the state of the engine. Hearing a noise behind him he turned towards the woods expecting to see a bear, or some similar animal, but he took a step back when he saw the pair of yellow eyes shining in the darkness. In an instant the creature was upon him, fangs barred, full game-face on. There was no doubt about it. It was a vampire. Silently thanking whatever higher power existed that his time fighting with Buffy had taught him a thing or two, Xander dropped down in a crouch and used his leverage to push the vampire off him. The flashlight clattered to the ground and threw its high-powered beam across the road, casting a muted glow on the scene unfolding before it. Contrary to Buffy's, or anyone else in the group's, perception Xander could actually hold his own quite well against any vampire in a fight and therefore could best almost any normal human if it came to that. So as the vampire attacked the young man countered and blocked, keeping the demon off-balance, causing it to lose what little concentration it may have had. Xander noticed that this vampire seemed different from the ones he'd encountered in Sunnydale. There wasn't any of the normal verbal sparing, none of the back and forth of pithy lines. In fact other than grunts and growls the vampire didn't seem to make any sounds at all. As he stepped back to avoid a fierce swipe at his face, Xander took a brief moment to really look at his opponent. It looked like any other vampire he had ever seen, pretty much anyway. The ridges on its forehead were more pronounced and its fangs seemed larger. Its hair was long, dirty and unkempt and it wore only the merest tatters of what once must have been a shirt and pants. Finally there was the way it moved. Not standing upright at all, but crouching the entire time and darting from one side to the other. It reminded Xander more of an animal than anything else and that's when he realized that was exactly what he was looking at. A feral vampire. He had come across the term in one of Giles' books, during one of their late night research sessions on Angelus. Apparently if a vampire didn't feed regularly it would revert back to the demonic equivalent of a Neanderthal-like state. What was puzzling now was that, as dirty and disheveled as the vampire was, it was obvious that it had been feeding on a regular basis. So based on what Xander knew there was no reason for it to have gone feral at all. But as the vampire lashed out at his head with its claw-like fingers again, he realized that now was not the time to be pondering that particular fact.

The Humvee rolled along through the night while Jack squinted, trying to pick his way along the dark road. "Do you see anything yet, Daniel?" The doctor of archeology turned towards his friend and raised the night-vision goggles to the top of his head.

"Nothing yet, Jack, but for all we know this thing could be hiding in the forest, or halfway to Colorado Springs by now."

"Well do me favour and keep looking. It's around here somewhere."

"How can you be sure of that, O'Neill?" Teal'c asked, looking up from the work he was doing on his staff weapon.

"Oh, just call it a hunch." The Jaffa, raised his eyebrow in a questioning manner.

"A hunch?"

"Not now, Teal'c." Jack dismissed. Suddenly around the next bend the Humvee's headlights illuminated a car stopped in the middle of the road and in front of that two figures obviously engaged in a fight for their lives. Jack stopped the vehicle and hopped out, followed by Carter, Daniel and Teal'c.

"That's the creature, sir." Carter said, pointing out the low crouched figure.

"We have to do something, Jack." Daniel told him. "That thing could kill whoever it's fighting." O'Neill tightened his grip on the staff weapon, but made no move to use it. Daniel saw this and exclaimed, "Jack!"

"We can't do anything right now, Daniel. I don't want to risk hitting the kid if we fire on that thing." A look of understanding came over the doctor's face and he nodded.

Meanwhile the fight went on with the creature and the young man circling each other, each one trying to gain the upper hand. O'Neill noticed that each time the thing went to attack the man blocked it and then kept his distance, waiting for his own chance to strike and finally it came. The creature reared back to leap forward in what certainly would be a killing blow, exposing itself at the same time. In a flash the young man reached into his back pocket for an object and before the beast could protect itself he jammed it into its chest. What happened next was simply unbelievable, even for the likes of SG-1. The thing staggered back only a few steps and then its body seemed to disintegrate into dust which then exploded in a burst of air and settled on the ground. The team stood there in shock; Jack and Sam's eyes opened wide while Daniel's mouth hung open and Teal'c looked on impassively as ever. The young man dusted himself off and slipped his weapon back into his pocket before he looked up and noticed finally that he was not alone. "Uh... hi," he grinned sheepishly. Jack blinked and managed to recover the power of speech.

"What the hell is going on around here?" The young man continued to grin and shrugged his shoulders for emphasis before he spoke again.

"I don't suppose you'd believe that this was all just a hallucination?" O'Neill shook his head. "Okay, then let's start with, 'Hi, I'm Xander Harris.'"

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**Cheyenne Mountain Complex - Colorado - July 11th, 1999**

Xander stared at the steel re-enforced door, painted battleship grey, and then at the concrete walls of the room that he had been held in for the last twelve hours. He was told that, officially, he was a guest of the Cheyenne Mountain facility, but he felt more like their prisoner. He had been fed what passed for a standard military meal brought to him by a man in fatigues and when he had asked to go to the little boy's room he had been accompanied by two armed guards. Not into the washroom of course, because _that_ would have been a violation of his personal rights. _Unlike being held underground in, what appears to be, a very secret Air Force compound against my will and without any explanation whatsoever_, he thought sarcastically. Just as he was about to lie back down on the cot and examine the ceiling tiles again, the door opened and the bald, Black man Xander had seen earlier on the road came in; followed, of course by more armed guards. "Come with me." he said in a deep, rich baritone voice. Xander had long since given up asking questions of his would-be jailers, so instead he simply followed the man while the guards followed him in turn. He was led down a series of nearly identical hallways and finally he was ushered into what looked like a large conference room. Xander was fairly certain that it was a briefing room, but he held his tongue until he could figure out what was going on. At the far end of the table sat the three other people he had met out on the road and a fourth who was undoubtedly in charge. Xander's soldier memories told him as much, because stars meant a general no matter what branch of the military you were in... well except for the Navy. The soldiers that had escorted him in stood at attention behind him while the other man went and sat with the others. Xander was beginning to feel very nervous and he was sure he was about to start perspiring when the general spoke. "Have a seat." The warm, slightly worn Texas drawl put Xander at ease and he did as he was asked. "Son, my name is General Hammond and I'm the commander of this operation. I'm sure you've got questions about why we've kept you here and I'll try and answer them to the best of my ability." Xander let out an internal sigh of relief; finally he was getting somewhere. "But first we'd like you to answer some of our questions." Of course there had to be a catch. The young man shrugged nonchalantly,

"Sure, what would you like to know?" As if in answer to his question the blonde-haired woman, whose nameplate identified her as Major Carter, flipped open a manila folder and began to read.

"Harris, Alexander L. Born: April 12th, 1981. Parents: Anthony & Jessica Harris. Current Residence: Sunnydale, California. Grade Point Average: 2.3 -"

"Whoa! Let's just stop right there before you start telling everyone my measurements, shall we?" Xander interrupted. Carter stopped in mid-sentence and looked up slightly shocked. "How is it you guys already know so much about me?"

"We're the Air Force, Junior." the older man said. Xander couldn't read his nameplate, but he recalled Carter addressing him as Colonel as they made their way back in the Humvee. Seeing that no more answer than that was forthcoming, Xander just nodded. After a brief silence General Hammond spoke again.

"What we'd like to know is, what exactly happened out there?" Xander paused for a moment. He was temped to lie to them, because it would be easier than having to explain what actually happened. He knew though that trained military officers would see through that in a second, so what was the point? He'd just have to tell them the truth and all the facts relevant to the truth. He sighed and looked up at the assembled group before him.

"The first thing you need to understand is that there is more to this world than you know. More than you could possible imagine, but it's all true." He tried to gauge their reactions, but could find nothing in their faces that told him anything. He took one last deep breath and began. "Vampires are real..."

An hour later he was done reciting his tale. He hadn't given away any specifics to his so-called hosts, but he did tell them everything they needed to know to understand what they had seen. Vampires were real. Demons were real. Magic was real. Understandably they were all stunned and for several moments silence reigned in the briefing room. Finally the Colonel spoke.

"That is the biggest pile of horse-hooey I've ever heard!"

"Colonel!" Hammond reprimanded.

"Oh, come on, Sir. That's absolutely ridiculous! None of it could possibly, ever be -"

"Actually, Sir, it could explain a lot." Carter offered.

"What?"

"Well, think of all the unexplainable things we've come across on missions. If all this is true it would go a long way to explaining some of what we've encountered. Especially the creature that escaped from here tonight." Xander sat up a little straighter in his chair.

"It came from here?" he asked incredulously. Totally ignoring him the Colonel fired back at the Major.

"This is crazy! You can't believe this guy?"

"Jack, after everything we've seen, how is this so hard to fathom?" the younger man in the glasses asked.

"Oh, Daniel not you too?"

"Mr. Harris here seems to have a wealth of knowledge that I think could be very useful to us."

"So do I, Sir." Carter spoke up. The Colonel, Jack, was about at his wits end it seemed and almost ready to start tearing his hair out in frustration. He whirled around in his chair,

"General!"

"Colonel O'Neill, I think this is something you and I should discuss in private." Then he stood up and led the way out of the room into an adjacent office. Jack followed. Xander was left alone with Carter, Daniel and the bald man. Nervously he tented his fingers and tried not to dart his eyes around the room. Suddenly he found Daniel at his side.

"So, uh, exactly how to these vampires differ to the various myths that have been recorded?" Xander managed a shaky smile and slowly filled the man in, to the best of his knowledge. He also told him that there was in fact a wealth of knowledge on the subject contained in several ancient volumes that most scholars regarded as nothing more than mythology and folklore. Daniel was beginning to make a list of these when Hammond and Jack re-entered the room. Xander immediately stood at attention when the senior officers came in. They both gave him a look and then the General proceeded to speak.

"After much consideration and despite the protests of Colonel O'Neill I have decided that this situation is not one we can afford to ignore, especially after recent events." Jack stood in the corner with a sour look on his face as if trying to will the General to change his mind. "Therefore as the commanding officer of this facility I would like to extend the offer to take you on as a part of our program, pending the agreement of the United States Air Force and the President. I'm afraid I'm going to have to ask for your answer immediately due to the nature of the work we do here we'd need to escort you off-base right away if you're not interested." For possibly the first time in his life Xander Harris was speechless. He had left Sunnydale on an excursion to explore his options and find himself and now he was being offered a job with the U.S. Air Force. He knew this was a once in a lifetime opportunity and that it would never come around again. So he did the only thing he could do.

"I would be honored to accept, General Hammond." The General came over and shook his hand. Then he found it was being shook by Daniel and Carter as well. He found himself saying, "This is just the tip of the iceberg you won't believe what else is out there." Suddenly a siren sounded and a whirring noise filled the room. A voice came over the intercom, "Off-world activation." The grey metal shutters that covered the windows of the briefing room began to rise and Xander was faced with an awe-inspiring sight. A large stone ring sat in the middle of the room below, its centre rippling with some strange energy. Then suddenly figures began to emerge from it, making their way down a ramp to the floor below.

"Oh, I think we'd believe almost anything." Jack said snidely from the corner. Xander continued to stare out the window.

"Mr. Harris, welcome to Stargate Command."

To Be Continued...


	2. Chapter 2 & Chapter 3

Chapter 2

**Cheyenne Mountain Complex - Colorado - September 4th, 1999**

"You are dropping your shoulder again, Xander Harris; that leaves you open to attack." Xander straightened himself then fell back into position this time making sure to keep his shoulder up. Across from him Teal'c stood in a similar fashion, his face neutral. It had been almost a month since the Jaffa had first started training him in the art of Lok'nel and although he hadn't been a particularly quick study he more than made up for it with his work ethic. Xander practiced at least two hours every day, more when he could find the time. Although with his rather hectic schedule it wasn't easy.

Since joining the SGC nearly two months ago Xander had been constantly busy. The first couple of weeks were filled with nothing but briefings; some led by himself and some by either Daniel, or Major Carter. Xander had given them detailed information on vampires, mystical knowledge, the Hellmouth itself, as many demons as he could remember from countless research sessions and of course the history and lore of the Slayer. Daniel was the most interested about the Slayer and turned up a few days later with an armload of books each with at least one vague reference. He told Xander that he had simply chalked them up to local superstition until now. In turn he himself was given the rundown on the Stargate, the SGC, the Asgard, the Tok'ra and the Goa'uld. He was amazed to discover that as much as he knew about things that went on in the world that no one else noticed, there were things perhaps even more fantastic. And now he was in the thick of it.

After everyone was filled in on all the pertinent information it was announced that Xander's appointment to the Stargate program had been approved and that he was to immediately begin training and establishment. As it turned out "establishment" meant setting him up with the things he needed to perform his job of being the SGC's resident occult expert. With Daniel's help he managed to track down and acquire some of the more common reference books on demons and vampires as well as a few unique volumes that he knew Giles would just about wet himself over. This however created a new problem since one, or two of the most important works were written in languages other than English. So now in addition to training with Teal'c and researching what he could about possible origins of vampires off-world, Xander was also being tutored by Daniel on ancient languages. Lastly it was decided that Xander needed to be trained in the military aspects of working at the SGC. That task fell to Colonel O'Neill himself, but as he soon found out very little training in that area was needed at all. Xander seemed to have an innate knowledge of military protocols and procedures and he displayed an uncanny ability with the full range of firearms used by off-world teams. Jack was beside himself when Xander explained to him the events of Halloween almost two years before. After that it was decided that training would concentrate on alien weapons and technology.

Everyone was amazed at the dedication that the young man put towards all of his endeavors and they were equally impressed with the progress he was making; including Xander himself. Back in Sunnydale he had always been the joker, the normal one, the one who always had to be protected. He had been relegated to nothing more than an extra pair of eyes during research sessions and of course the ever-faithful doughnut boy. No one had ever taken the time to show him anything, or teach him. Giles had never though to educate him in ancient languages so he could be more of a help with researching. Buffy had never shown him how to fight, or even how to defend himself against the inevitable vampire attacks. Certainly Willow had never included him in her budding study of witchcraft. The more he thought about it the more it seemed like each of his friends had their own little niche in the group and none of them wanted to share their particular talents. As a result Xander had fallen by the wayside in a way. He wasn't bitter towards them though… well not much. He understood the reasons behind their attitudes, but he certainly didn't agree with them. Now though with a new group of peers and mentors Xander flourished and all it had taken were people who took the time to take an interest in him and help him.

He shook these thoughts from his head as he and Teal'c circled each other. He took a moment and let his mind clear. He closed his eyes, taking a deep breath and let the calm wash over him. Then he opened them again and saw nothing but an opponent who had to be defeated. He felt the hard floor beneath the balls of his feet as he shifted from one to the other, always moving, always looking for an opportunity. He could feel this heart pounding in his chest, his muscles tense and ready, breathing in steady, deep intervals. He was ready. His eyes never left the target and just as he was getting ready to hit first he saw the other man's shoulder tense; a sign that he was about to strike. Xander readied himself and as he expected Teal'c threw a fake with his right and then came around with his left - only to be blocked by Xander's forearm. Then reaching over he took hold of the arm, feeling the sweat coating the dark skin and the hard muscle below, and turning used his momentum to heave the larger man away from him. Seeing that his opponent was now off balance Xander moved in closer landing a series of punches to his midsection. Teal'c stumbled backwards and Xander went down for a leg sweep to bring him down. At the last second he saw his mistake. With his heart pounding in his ears he watched helpless as the other man reached over him grabbing his own arm. He could feel himself being lifted off the floor and for one moment he was weightless, before he came crashing to the floor. He hadn't been paying enough attention. He thought that the Jaffa had been stumbling, when in fact he had been planting himself for the flip.

Xander groaned and sat up. Teal'c stood across the mat from him, his face still impassive, but the young man swore he saw the ghost of a smile flicker across his face for an instant and then it was gone. "You have improved a great deal, Xander Harris. But your focus is still not as it should be." The man threw him a towel. "Meditate on that point before our next training session." Xander grinned as he got up off the floor and followed Teal'c out of the training room.

**

* * *

Cheyenne Mountain Complex - Colorado - November 15th, 1999**

The members of SG-1 and Xander sat around the conference table waiting for General Hammond to arrive and start the briefing. For the life of him Xander couldn't figure out why he had been summoned to this meeting. As far as he could tell it was a mission briefing for Colonel O'Neill's team and there was no reason why he should be here for that. He was anxious to get back to his pseudo library and continue his research. He had found an obscure prophecy that might deal with demons from other worlds, but he had to complete the translation before he could tell if it meant other _physical_ worlds, or other dimensions. Just as he was about to go back to consulting his notes the General strode in and took his seat before any of them could get up. "My apologies, everyone, but I had one important bit of business to complete." The others all looked around at each other puzzled, except for Jack. Obviously something was going on. "Before we begin there is one matter I have to attend to," he looked over towards Xander. "Now usually this would be done in a more official setting with all the proper officers in attendance, however time is short and these are not your usual circumstances. Mr. Harris would you please stand at attention." Although confused Xander did as he was asked and noticed that the rest of the room did as well. He turned back as the General continued to speak. "Due to the unique nature of your area of expertise and your obvious knowledge and adeptness of military procedures it would be rather difficult to list you officially as a civilian consultant, like Doctor Jackson." Hammond removed something from his pocket and handed it to Jack as he went on. "Therefore it has been decided and approved by the United States Air Force, myself as the commander of this facility and by Colonel O'Neill that you are to be given a field commission of Second Lieutenant and assigned as the fifth member of SG-1."

Xander was shocked to say the least. He had been accepted here, respected for his own unique skills, nurtured and mentored and now he had been placed in a position of responsibility. No more standing on the sidelines. No more being told to stay out of things for his own safety. No more being the Zeppo. He almost didn't notice as Jack approached him and pinned his bar on each of his shoulders. Once that was done after a slap on the back from the Colonel and congratulations from the rest of the team the briefing began.

"Lieutenant Harris' commission comes at this particular time, not by chance, but because he will be vital to SG-1's next mission. You will be going back to P3X-273 to investigate more thoroughly in light of the appearance of our uninvited guest several months ago. I have been informed by my superiors that any creatures of other-natural origin that we encounter from this time on will be referred to, in official channels, as Hostile Sub-Terrestrials, or HST's for short.

"Now since you have all already reviewed the reports on the previous mission we need not cover that ground again. So this briefing is to get you acquainted with your new adversary as well as the new additions to your standard off-world equipment." The General then turned the meeting over to Xander. He explained how the planet was the perfect place for a vampire, since it only received two hours of sunlight a day and still remained at a moderate temperature because of an unknown type of rock in the planet's crust that retained the heat of the sun. Next he moved on to the most common and effective ways to kill a vampire. Stake through the heart, exposure to sunlight, fire and decapitation. "Although," he pointed out, "in this case sunlight will pretty much be a non-factor." Lastly he went through, in detail, the rundown of their current weaponry, its effects on vampires and the new additions to their regular arsenal. "First of all our guns are going to be very little help. Bullets won't kill vamps, but they will hurt them. Your best bet is to shoot them in the leg, knee, or head. That will slow them down and maybe even incapacitate them so you can either kill them, or get past them. After that we have the zat guns, which again will only incapacitate a vampire. With any living creature one shot stuns, two shots kill and three shots disintegrates, however since a vampire is already dead all the zat will do is send a shock of electricity through it. In order to take it down it will need to be hit by several, simultaneous blasts. The staff weapon is the most effective tool we currently have at our disposal. It releases a large focused energy blast that will have the same result as, say, throwing a fireball at a vamp. It will burn it up and turn it to dust.

"Now on to our new toys." Xander grinned and opened a case on the table that contained several items. "Here is your garden variety stake," here he held up a piece of lathed wood that had been sharpened to a point at one end. "You thrust the stake into the vampire's heart, pointy end first, and that is that. Simple. Straightforward. Effective. It will take some time and practice to become proficient in hitting the heart with the first blow. Next, vials of holy water. These will merely burn a vampire, but they work well as a distraction, or a way to frighten off a more cowardly enemy. Also some light-weight, collapsible crossbows with a quiver of bolts that will now be attached to the standard packs. These will only be issued to those that feel comfortable with them. Lastly the standard tact-lights on our firearms have been replaced with UV lights. In theory this should have the same effect on vampires that sunlight does, but it is untested so this will be the trial run." With a few other minor points Xander concluded his portion of the briefing and took his seat again. After the standard warnings and reminders of protocol the new SG-1 was dismissed and left to prepare.

**

* * *

****Cheyenne Mountain Complex - Colorado - November 16th, 1999**

There was something to be said for being fully prepared when facing a new experience. However, as Xander had learned in the past, sometimes being prepared just wasn't enough. This was one of those cases. He stood between Jack and Daniel at the bottom of the ramp that led up to the event horizon of the Stargate. On the Colonel's other side stood Carter and Teal'c. He waited, trying to contain his excitement and his trepidation, as the seconds ticked down and the chevrons locked into place one by one. Finally he heard Davis' voice call out over the speakers, "Chevron seven, locked," and there in front of him he beheld the most amazing sight he had ever seen. The wormhole congealed into being and sent a blast of cloud-like energy surging outward from the gate for a moment and then it was drawn back in like an elastic band that had been stretched too far and then released. Xander stared transfixed at the shimmering pool that now filled the stone circle that was the gate. It seemed to move within its confines, like ripples on a pond and all Xander could do was stare at it in wonder.

"C'mon kid, let's get this show on the road." Jack clapped him on the back and started moving forward up the ramp with the rest of the team. Xander watched as his new teammates disappeared through the gate and then he stepped through after them.

* * *

Chapter 3

**Planet P3X-273 - Earth Date: November 17th, 1999**

He remembered thinking, in the split-second between entering the gate on Earth and exiting on the other side of the galaxy, that he now knew what infinity must look like. Now, as he sat crouched next to a large rock formation, Xander wished that he had simply never gotten out of bed. It had been raining since the moment they had arrived on the planet and they still had an hour or so until the sun rose for its measly forty-eight hour appearance. They had set out immediately, but soon found it rough going through the dense forest; hindered by the darkness and the sodden, swamp-like ground. Jack made the decision to stop and wait until sunrise so they could at least get their bearings. In an effort to stay dry and ease some the dampness Carter set about making a fire and in no time the five of them were gathered around a good-sized blaze. Not five minutes later, out of the corner of his eye, Xander saw a shape moving in the trees. "Look's like we've got company." he muttered just loud enough for the others to hear. They all gripped their weapons a little tighter and looked around, trying to peer through the gloom.

"I see nothing Xander Harris." Teal'c announced after sweeping his gaze around their campsite. Xander waited, tensed and ready, listening for the tell-tale sign.

"Trust me, they're out there… I can practically smell them."

"So you can… uh… smell vampires-"

"Daniel." Jack said sternly, cutting the other man off.

"Oh, of course." Daniel realized. "Figure of speech." The team sat in silence, their weapons at the ready, but still nothing happened. Then in the blink of an eye they were set upon by half a dozen vampires and chaos ensued. Jack and Carter fell back on their training and immediately began to fire at the oncoming enemies. As Xander had told them their bullets had little effect and the vamps kept coming. Daniel and Teal'c in the meantime were fairing slightly better. The Jaffa managed to dispatch two of the creatures with blasts from his staff weapon, while Daniel picked off one with a crossbow. That still left three of them and they could hear more coming through the woods. In one of his rare instances of quick thinking while under pressure, Xander grabbed a nearby branch and thrust it into the fire. When he was satisfied that it was burning well enough on its own he pulled it out and brandished it at the remaining vampires. At the sight of the flaming weapon they let out an inhuman shriek and started backing away. Pressing his advantage, Xander went after them and managed to set two of them on fire. The rest of the team watched as the figures were consumed by flame and then turned to dust. The one vampire that was left retreated into the woods in search of re-enforcements. The others breathed a sigh of relief, but there was no time to rest and Xander quickly assessed the situation. "We need to kill that fire. That's what attracted them in the first place. They saw the fire and figured anything that needed to start one would make a good meal." Carter and Daniel immediately began to smother the campfire while Xander continued. "We need to move on, now. That one that got away he knows where we are and he'll bring others. We can't risk lighting another fire so we need to find some kind of shelter to use while we wait for sunrise." Jack and Teal'c grabbed their gear and as soon as the fire was nothing more than smouldering embers they all began to trek through the trees in search of someplace to take refuge from the elements.

And now they sat hunkered down next to a large rock formation as dawn just began to creep across the sky. "Alright," said Jack, standing up. "Let's get moving." As they went along Xander couldn't help but wonder if they were, in fact, on another planet. It sure looked a lot like Earth to him. Trees, rocks, rain, vampires. There was nothing here that they didn't have in Sunnydale. As they went along Jack took point with Carter behind him followed by Xander and Daniel while Teal'c guarded the rear. As the sun finally broke through the clouds they were finally treated with a better picture of the planet they were on. At the moment they were moving though a dense forest of what looked a lot like pine trees. The ground was rocky, but covered by a bed of dead needles that made for easier walking and the sky above the trees that they glimpsed every now and then was a bright blue with the occasional cloud. _Yep_, thought Xander, _seems just like home to me_. Then they walked out of the forest. _Well, we don't have one of those at home_. Xander stared up at the large stone and metal structure that lay about seventy feet from the tree line. It wasn't that it was particularly large, or made out of a kind of foreign material, but the design was definitely not one that he had ever seen before. The building was about the size of an airplane hangar and rounded at the edges with various squared turrets and metal antennas protruding from its sides and top; in addition it was surrounded by a tall fence. There were no windows that he could see and he was unsure if the structure was one storey or more.

"Does that look out of place to anyone else?" Jack asked.

"It does look like a variation on a Goa'uld design, Sir." Carter replied.

"Then let's say we investigate carefully." The team crept up on the structure, making sure to sweep the clearing thoroughly as they went until they made it to the perimeter. The fence was composed of metal posts set at about half dozen yard intervals with sets of large cables that ran between them. To Xander it looked very much like the electric fences he'd seen while watching Jurassic Park with Jessie and Willow. "Looks like these were put here to keep the vamps out." he observed. The Colonel nodded and motioned for them to fan out, which they did following separate paths around the barrier until they met up again at the gate. Unlike the fence itself the gate looked to be in severe disrepair.

"This just keeps getting weirder and weirder." Jack muttered.

"Why would anyone go to the trouble of putting up what appears to be an electrified fence if they were just going to let the main entrance fall to pieces?" Carter puzzled and turned to her teammates. Daniel looked just a befuddled as she was and Jack and Xander were trading shrugs when Teal'c spoke up.

"Perhaps because this facility has not been in use for some time." The rest nodded and then cautiously stepped through the crack between the gate's doors. They made their way up to a door and after a quick check went inside the structure. The only light they were greeted with was daylight that filtered in though previously unseen windows built into the roof and equipped with thick steel bars. The layer of dust that covered everything in the large room went a long way to confirming Teal'c's conclusion about the building being abandoned. They explored, moving past large, shadowy pieces of equipment and banks of what Carter identified as Goa'uld computer mainframes that were all inactive. After a quick survey the team gathered in the centre of the room to figure out what to do next. "Okay kids this is what it looks like. It looks like we've found some kind of abandoned Goa'uld base. Let's scout around and see what we can find out. Carter I want you to stay here and try to get these computers up and running. Daniel and Teal'c I want you to search the entire ground floor and report back to me if you find anything of interest. Harris you and I are gonna check out the second floor." Jack motioned upward with his hand towards the metal catwalk that stretched the entire length of room. The teams split up and went to work.

Jack and Xander ascended the metal staircase saying nothing, keeping their senses sharp for any sign of trouble. Just because the building looked deserted didn't mean that it was. There may not have been a Goa'uld in residence for a while, but vampires had a tendency to move in to abandoned buildings and infest them. _Kind of like cockroaches_, Xander thought. The catwalk appeared to be just that, a catwalk. It extended over the entire room, although for what purpose neither of the men could guess. There was nothing mounted on it and none of the offshoots led to other rooms. As they continued to explore the Colonel suddenly spoke. "That was good work back at camp." Xander was stunned and said nothing so Jack continued. "It was quick thinking going after them with the fire. I know that Carter and I didn't help matters much, but it's going to take some time to get used to an enemy we can't shoot." he grinned wryly. Finally able to find his voice Xander replied,

"Thank you, Sir." The older man nodded and then spoke again.

"I was also impressed with how you took charge once it was over. You knew the situation and we didn't, so you immediately made sure that the threat would be lessened and got your team to safety. That's a valuable skill, kid. Each one of us has our own area of expertise on this team. When it comes to science we listen to Carter, with languages and that stuff we listen to Daniel and when it comes to the Goa'uld and the Jaffa we listen to Teal'c. Now when it comes to anything… otherworldly we'll listen to you. Just don't forget who's in command. In any situation my word overrules everyone, got it?" Xander nodded and the two continued along in silence. Verbal silence anyways. Inside Xander's head his thoughts were going a mile a minute and most of them were throwing a party. The times were few and far between when he was ever acknowledged for his contributions to anything and now here he was on his first mission and he was receiving praise from his commanding officer. If his pride swelled anymore he was sure that something inside him was going to burst. He snuck a look at the man walking next to him. Of all the members of SG-1 Jack O'Neill had been the hardest one for him to read. He got along with Daniel from the get go since both of them were not military types and they had bonded over volumes of demon lore. Teal'c was pretty much an open book. What you saw was what you got. Major Carter reminded him very much of Willow. They both had a love of all things technical and seemed to share a tendency to babble on about things no one else quite understood. With O'Neill however he wasn't able to glean much of anything at all. He was a career military man and that was his life, aside from the occasional fishing trip. He didn't seem to have many interests outside of the SGC, but then he was very closed off and Xander suspected that there was much more about him than meets the eye.

Surprisingly enough Jack felt the same way about Xander. The young man had shared very little about his life in California with any of them. They knew that he had faced vampires and demons in his hometown, but where that was and the circumstances behind those encounters remained a mystery. Based on his familiarity with the subject of the so-called Slayer, Jack concluded that Xander must have had some dealings with at least one of them possibly more. His curiosity got the better of him and he was about to ask Xander about his past when Carter shouted up from the ground below them.

"Sir! I've got the computers up and running!" By the time Jack and Xander had reached the rest of the team Carter had already compiled some preliminary data. "It was Nirrti, Sir."

"For cryin' out loud, not her again!"

"I'm afraid so, Sir. This was a laboratory of hers. It looks like she was experimenting on the vampires."

"To what end?" Teal'c asked looking around.

"We won't know that until we get some of these data crystals back to the SGC so I can extract the information they're holding." Jack tugged on the brim of his cap and slung his MP-5 around to his back.

"You heard her folks! Grab some crystals and let's go home."

**

* * *

Cheyenne Mountain Complex - Colorado - November 19th, 1999**

Once again the members of SG-1 and General Hammond sat around the large conference table in the briefing room. It had taken two days, but Sam with Daniel's help, had finally managed to download and translate the most relevant of Nirrti's lab notes and experiments. Carter laid it all out for them. "We know that the Goa'uld abducted humans from Earth hundreds of years ago to use as slaves on other worlds. It seems that they also took a number of vampires as well. This was done completely by mistake; the Goa'uld thought they were normal human beings and only later did they discover their mistake. Nirrti herself discovered two, or three vampires and brought them to P3X-273 because of its unique habitat. Once there she began to experiment on them by using selective breeding and even some minor gene re-sequencing. Then she bred them." Carter paused as the horror of what had actually been done settled over the group. "She managed to breed out their more human qualities until all that was left was nothing more than an animal in a human body. Then she sent some of her creations through the Stargate to different worlds so she could observe the results of introducing them into other situations and environments. Eventually she abandoned the project after some of the other System Lords found out about it and feared that she would use these monsters against them."

"So a vampire could kill a Goa'uld?" General Hammond asked.

"Theoretically yes sir, much in the same way that our weapons can kill them if they're taken by surprise." After a moment Xander spoke up in cold voice.

"So a vampire could _turn_ a Goa'uld." Carter simply nodded. The room grew oppressively silent then as everyone contemplated what this meant.

"People it looks like we have a new enemy on our hands." the General stated. "One that could pop up at any time on any world we visit. We need to be ready and we need to come up with a plan in case Lieutenant Harris' suggestion ever becomes a reality." With that they were all dismissed and as they walked down the corridor from the briefing room Jack muttered loudly enough to be heard by anyone nearby, "Great, a Goa'uld who's also a vampire. That's just what we need."

To Be Continued...


	3. Chapter 4 & Chapter 5

Chapter 4

**The Magic Box - Sunnydale, California - February 10th, 2001**

"Buffy, you're dropping your shoulder again." Giles chided as he stood across the room from the Slayer. Raising her shoulder back into position Buffy continued with her katas as her newly re-appointed Watcher looked on. Happy as she was that he had been re-instated by the Council after their impromptu visit, she wished that Giles would take his role a little less seriously at times. Buffy sighed. She knew that she was distracted and though she tried to clear her mind and focus on her exercises her thoughts wandered, inevitably, back to Xander.

He had been gone for a little over a year and a half now and she hadn't heard from him in six months; no one had. It was as if he had dropped off the face of the Earth. Buffy was worried about him. He was out there on his own, doing Heaven knows what, but being Xander, it probably meant he was putting himself in some kind of danger. Granted it would be so he could help someone else, or do the right thing, because that was just the sort of man Xander Harris was. Buffy could admit this to herself now, but it had taken time.

She had done a lot of thinking since Xander had left and most of it centred around her life and his role in it. Xander had always been there for her, even in her darkest times. He had come to save her from her death at the hands of the Master. Yes, she knew that he had been the only one, herself included, who thought that she could be saved at all. Angel had told her once about how Xander had come to his apartment and forced him to lead the way down to the Master's lair. How it had been Xander who had never given up on her even when it appeared that she was gone. He had breathed his own life into her and brought her back.

Then when Angel lost his soul, it was Xander who told her what needed to be done and at first she wouldn't listen. He was insistent to the last, telling her to "Kick his ass," as he arrived on the scene to be the one man, scarred guy with a rock, cavalry. She had found out about that as well. Willow had confided in her later about sending Xander to inform her about the spell. Buffy knew that he had lied to her… and she knew why. Once again he was there for her. He didn't care one way, or the other what happened to Angel, or Angelus - but he cared about what happened to her. She knew that he feared she wouldn't have fought half as hard if she had known that Angel might have been returned to her. He was right. This last piece of self introspection had taken a long time to come to, but in the end she saw that he had been right. She wouldn't have fought her hardest; her feelings for Angel would have clouded her judgment and she very well might have died and the world would have died along with her. She knew that Xander did what he did for her and the world, but foremost for her. She sighed and wondered if he did that sort of thing for others now. Of course he would, it was in his nature. But a part of her couldn't help but be a little sad that he wasn't doing it for her anymore.

As the Slayer progressed into her last set of movements she tried to shake off the melancholy that always seemed to accompany thoughts of her wayward friend. Unfortunately that only gave way to thoughts of what things had been like without him. College had been a trying experience, but she had risen to the challenge and after a rough start she had managed to balance her Slaying, her school and even a little bit of a personal life. There had been Riley and for a time things were good, not peaceful, but good. She had Riley, Willow had lost Oz, but found Tara and Giles, was being Giles. The Initiative and ADAM had been hurdles to climb, but they had persevered in the end and things were good.

Then Dracula had come and Riley's doubts began to surface. Their relationship strained and in the end he left, because she had nothing left to give. She had been too busy giving it all to her mother… and Dawn. A little sister she never had, but that she remembered having for almost her entire life. A false set of memories given to her and those around her by a mystical order of monks in order to safeguard an ancient power known only as, The Key. An ancient power they had managed to turn into a human form. A little girl. A sister. Something that the Slayer would protect with her very life. Buffy barely had enough time to react to the joy of her mother's recovery and the sorrow of Riley's departure when Glory arrived. A being of unknown power, and terrible fashion sense, whose only purpose seemed to be finding The Key. Then the truth about Dawn was discovered not only by Buffy and the others, but by Dawn herself. Then the final bombshell was dropped, by none other than the infamous Council of Watcher's themselves: Glory was a God. Unstoppable, unkillable and….. some other "un" word that she couldn't think of, but was sure existed, because things like that always came in threes.

Her actions began to speed up as she let her emotions take over. The slow, measured movements were being replaced with hard, sharp kicks and punches. Her teeth clenched as her memories came unbidden now.

Through everything that had happened to all of them, any of them, there had been Spike. William the Bloody, once of the Scourges of Europe, now nothing more than a neutered dog thanks to a government behaviour modification chip implanted in his head that stopped him from harming anything human. At first he was harmless, but annoying. Then when he found out he could hurt demons he was helpful, but still annoying. Then he tried to help ADAM and he became annoying, but still capable of evil. After that he went into hiding for a while, periodically emerging to scavenge in the town dump. Then he started coming around again, once he was sure no one was going to stake him, or set him on fire, but he seemed to have an ulterior motive. Then she found out. He was in love with her! Or so he claimed when she confronted him about his odd behaviour. It was sick and twisted and she couldn't believe that it was true. Of course it was too horrifying and utterly Hellmouthy (to use a term Xander had coined) to be anything but.

The pent up frustration was too much and Buffy moved seamlessly and dangerously from her katas to a series of deadly martial arts combinations, culminating with a final vicious attack that left the training dummy decapitated and quadriplegic. Her breathing was heavy and ragged as her body shook with exertion; her eyes cold and hard as they looked down at the wreckage on the floor. Where Giles saw a pile of broken wood, straw and sawdust, Buffy saw the beaten and bloody corpse of a bleach blonde vampire. "Well I'd say that was quite enough training for today." Giles said uncrossing his arms and walking over to her. "Though it does look like we've gone through yet another dummy." Then without thinking he continued, "I do wish Xander were here. He always did seem good with his hands and I'd wager he could build a training apparatus that could survive even one of your unprovoked attacks." With that, Buffy burst into tears and fell to her knees. Giles immediately rushed over and took her in his arms, realizing his poor choice of sentiments. It seemed that no one had weathered the absence of Alexander Harris without their own traumas.

Buffy, it seemed, had taken his leaving hardest of all, although each of the Scoobies was affected in their own way. Willow had been crushed when he left, but with Oz by her side she managed to get by. When Oz left as well however, the young witch had sunk into a depression that no one had been able to get her out of. She spent hours alone and in her fragile state of mind Giles had been worried that she might do something very foolish and possibly dangerous to herself or someone else. That was when the group suggested that she join a local Wiccan group to try and hone her powers, rather than let them be governed by her erratic emotions. Although the group turned out to be nothing more than college girls who wanted to get in touch with Mother Nature and hold bake sales, there was an upside in the form of a shy, but powerful witch named Tara. Giles shook his head as he led Buffy back into the main room of the Magic Box, marveling at how one life could seemingly affect so many others.

Willow and Tara looked up as the pair walked behind the counter and into Giles' office. The redhead could see that Buffy had been crying again. She called out, "Is everything okay?" A moment later Giles stuck his head out the door.

"Everything is, is fine, Willow. I wasn't thinking and, uh, mentioned something about Xander." Willow nodded in understanding and turned back to her book as Giles retreated into the back.

For the next several minutes Willow tried to read the page in front of her, but her mind wandered and whenever she tried to continue she found herself reading the same sentence over and over again. With a sigh she gave up and put her head down on the table. Tara noticed the gesture, but did nothing; knowing that Willow needed to work whatever it was out on her own. Although the statuesque blonde had a pretty good idea what it was her girlfriend was dealing with and she would not have been surprised to find out she was, in fact, correct.

Willow closed her eyes and tried once more to clear her mind. It had been hard, very hard, when Xander had left. They had been practically inseparable since they were five years old and to suddenly not have him in her life had been a huge blow. Not just to her, she knew, but to all of them. At least she had Tara to help her. She'd been a real wreck after Oz left and meeting Tara had been like a lone ray of sunshine penetrating her otherwise pitch black world. Slowly, with her girlfriend's help, she was almost back to being the old Willow, with a few improvements. Giles and Buffy however didn't really have anyone to help them. They all had each other that was true and Buffy had her mom and Dawn, but the last two Scoobies were very personal people and always played their emotions very close to the vest. Especially Buffy in this particular instance; Giles was a little easier to read.

Although he would never say it out loud, Willow knew that he thought of them all as his surrogate children and when Xander left it was like Giles had lost his only real son. He never said anything about it, but the redheaded witch would sometimes catch him glancing at the phone, or compulsively checking the mail and she knew that he was waiting for some sign that Xander was alright. Also Giles tended to sing Xander's praises (generally when Buffy wasn't around) in a way he had never done when the young man was around. It was as if doing so was a way of keeping him alive in the older man's heart. The girls had tried to spend more time with the Watcher in the hopes that they could, in some small way, make up for Xander's absence. But as they all learned, that was not something that could be accomplished.

Tara sat very quietly and watched everything that had just happened with a kind of awkward detachment. Even though she and Willow had been seeing each other for a year now and she had been involved with lots of the "Scooby-stuff" as it was called; she still felt very much like an outsider. Not with Willow of course, or more accurately not with Willow when they were alone together. Then they were just girlfriend and girlfriend and there was no one else. Whenever they got together with Buffy and Giles it felt to Tara like the specter of Xander was always there; not literally of course, he wasn't dead, but sometimes she felt like it might have been better for the group if he had died. Then at least they could have some kind of closure. Being the odd one out, the new one in the group she could see things that the others could not. They had all been around each other for so long that they had become trapped in the way they saw each other. She saw that Giles was having a hard time with Xander's absence and Willow told her that he saw them all as his children, but what Willow didn't see was the lengths that Giles had gone to, to try and _find_ Xander. That spoke volumes more to Tara than his kind words ever had.

As for Willow herself, she admitted to missing her lifelong friend, but said that she was so busy now with her witchcraft and with Tara that it wasn't as terrible as it had been in the beginning. The blonde knew that Willow was lying to her and to herself as well. She had never met Willow when Xander was there, but even so she could tell that a part of Willow was missing. At first she thought that it had been a hole where the Xander part of her life had been, but over time she began to see the truth of it. The part that was missing was the part of Willow that Xander carried with him; when they were together they were whole, when they were apart they weren't. Every so often Tara even got a glimpse of the part of Xander that Willow carried and it made her smile to know that her baby had such a devoted and true friend. She smiled to herself as she looked towards the office and then she sighed.

Only she knew about Buffy. Tara wasn't even sure that Buffy herself knew the way that she felt, or why she was so miserable all the time and could cry at almost the drop of a hat. The Slayer just attributed it to stress, what with Spike's obsession, dealing with the constant threat of Glory and trying to keep Dawn safe at all costs and those certainly were legitimate causes of stress that might make anyone break down and cry, but Tara knew that Buffy was different. Not because she was the Slayer, but because of the kind of person she was. She had been up against challenges before and never reacted this way, but then again she had always had all of her friends beside her. She had always had Xander. And there, as Shakespeare would say, was the rub. Over time Tara had heard all the stories of Buffy's previous years in Sunnydale either from the Slayer herself, or Willow, or Giles and once, rather begrudgingly, from Spike. She knew all the things that Xander had done, first to impress Buffy and then later just to make sure that one of his friends was safe and unhurt. It was this young man's devotion to his friends that made her really wish that she had gotten the chance to know him. In that respect he seemed like a very singular individual and in a little bit of a selfish way she wished that she could have had a friend like him.

Tara felt that she could have identified with Xander more than anyone else in the group, from what little Willow had shared with her about Xander's childhood and more importantly what she had left out, the Wiccan felt that they had quite a lot in common. She knew what it felt like to constantly doubt yourself, to have to prove yourself time and time again and most importantly she knew what it was like to have strong feelings for someone and not have them returned at all. But she also knew what it was like realize that she had been suppressing not so friendly feelings for someone close to her; she hadn't always been a lesbian and her coming out was not terribly well received by the object of her affections. That was why she knew what Buffy was going through, even if she didn't realize it herself, yet. Tara was convinced that if Xander had stayed in Sunnydale eventually he and Buffy would have gotten together, and it would have been the best thing for both of them.

The door to the office shot open, nearly flying off its hinges and slammed into the wall so hard that the rafters rattled slightly causing a fine mist of dust to fall across the counter. "I'm fine Giles!" Buffy huffed as she stormed out. The Englishman followed at a safe distance with a concerned look on his face.

"Buffy, I just think that perhaps you should take the night off. Stay at home with Dawn and your mother-" there he was cut off.

"I'm the Slayer, Giles. You've told me enough times yourself, 'lives depend on me'. So I'm going on patrol and that's final." Had anyone been walking by the Magic Box at that moment they would have been a small blonde blur go racing out the front door in the direction of the nearest cemetery.

As the door closed and bell ceased jingling Giles leaned against the counter and began rubbing his forehead. "We're all worried about her, Giles." Willow said, startling him. He looked up at the girls and Tara nodded her agreement as well. They had all seen the way Buffy had been for the last few weeks as the tensions mounted. She had become more erratic, more unpredictable; her actions more rash and even dangerous at times.

"Yes, well she has been acting rather more emotional lately."

"That's kind of an understatement." Willow corrected.

"Indeed." murmured Giles as he drew up a chair at the table. The three of them sat in silence wondering what, if anything, they could do and what might happen in the meantime.

* * *

Twilight faded into darkness as Buffy made her way into the cemetery. Her eyes had a vicious almost predatory look to them as she scanned the area. She wasn't just on patrol tonight. She was hunting. She need to _hurt_ something; to _kill_ something. It was all just too much for her and this was her only outlet. She could feel herself becoming more and more closed off to her friends and her family. She didn't want to shut them out, but she was afraid she might lash out at them and hurt them. Already she had exploded at Giles when the only thing he did was try and help her. They were all just trying to help her, each in their own way. But they couldn't help her, as always the burden was hers and hers alone to carry, only this time she was scared that she might be crushed by the weight of it. That thought stopped her in mid-stride and she crumpled to the ground next to a gravestone like lifeless wind-up doll. It was all just too much and she was so tired. She struggled to keep back the tears, but despite her best efforts a few stray droplets managed to escape and trickle down her cheeks.

She had to stop this. She was the Slayer. She was tough, she was strong and she could handle anything. But she was also Buffy. She was a young woman who had been under an enormous amount of strain for years now, even more so for the last few months. She had fears and emotions that could run wild at times. She had almost convinced herself that she couldn't afford to be both anymore; that she had to be the Slayer full time and being Buffy had to be put on the back burner. But she worried what would happen to her if she allowed that to happen. Would she lose her humanity? Would she become some battle-hardened General who barked orders and didn't care about what she did to others, or if she sent them to their deaths? She didn't want to be that person. She couldn't be. She didn't have it in her to be that way. But a part of her knew that she did and that frightened her.

She hugged her arms around her knees and sat there rocking gently back and forth. This is how it had been for her lately. One minute she was full of rage, an unstoppable anger that could only be sated by killing as many vampires and demons as possible. The next she could barely hold herself together and the despair and tears overwhelmed her to the point where she could hardly function. Then when she was at her lowest, no matter where she was, no matter what she was doing –

"Hello Slayer." Spike. The small blonde bolted to her feet at the sound of the vampire's voice. She really was becoming a wreck, she should have heard him coming a mile away. Spike was not exactly quiet these days. She swiped at her face with the sleeve of her sweater and then turned to face her stalker.

"What do you want, Spike?" she asked him, her voice cold. He gazed at her with a look of surprise on his face.

"I just wanted to make sure that you were alright." he said. "You looked like you might be having a spot of trouble and I wanted to see if I could help."

"You mean you wanted to see if you could exploit it, you mean." she shot back as the anger she had felt earlier returned.

"There you go again, shooting the messenger, so to speak. Been doing that a lot lately haven't you? Wonder how that Watcher of yours puts up with it all." With the mention of Giles, Buffy had had enough and with lightning speed she had her stake out and pressed up against the vampire's chest in a matter of seconds. "Whoa!" he exclaimed, "Let's not be hasty now."

"Give me one good reason why I shouldn't turn you into dust." she growled, her voice uncharacteristically low.

"Because," he stated matter-of-factly "that wouldn't solve your problem."

"Sure it would, you'd be dead and you wouldn't be here to piss me off." She increased her pressure on the stake as she spoke.

"See the problem with that is: I'm already dead, luv and even if you did dispatch me from the here and now you'd still be a right sodding, angry mess. Swinging at anything you can get your hands on until you can't even see straight anymore and that's when one of those things is gonna kill you." Spike finished and stared down at her defiantly. Buffy relaxed her grip on the stake and shoved him away from her.

"Go home, Spike." She turned and started to walk away, "You don't know what you're talking about." After a few yards his voice spoke from behind her.

"Actually, I'm uniquely qualified on the subject of suicidal Slayers." She whirled around to face him with fire in her eyes.

"I am _NOT_ suicidal. I do _not_ have a death wish. We've already had this conversation once before, Spike and you were full of it then too."

"Maybe not, but you're falling into the same trap they did." Buffy continued to glare at him. "Obviously you don't believe me so let's take a look at something a little more current. That Slayer that got called after the Master killed you."

"What does Kendra have to do with anything?" she all but screamed at him.

"Everything." Spike paused and leaned up against a tombstone. "She had one thing in common with all the other Slayers I've seen; one very strong thing. It was the one thing that I didn't see in you when we first met. I assumed you were like all the rest so I rushed in and it cost me, dearly." Buffy began to drum her fingers against her leg impatiently.

"Get to the point, Spike. Or I'll do it for you." She threatened, brandishing her stake towards him.

"They didn't care if they died." he stated simply. "They fought hard, with everything they had until it was all they had. Nothing left in the end but anger and pain and fighting and killing trying to make it stop. They were Slayers. Nothing else." Buffy opened her mouth to… to… contradict him, scream at him again, she didn't know, but before she could a memory flashed before her.

_She and Kendra sitting in Giles office checking their weapons as they planned what to do next. The turmoil of Spike and Drusilla looming over them. _

_"Your life is very different dan mine." _

_"You mean the part where I occasionally have one? Yeah, I guess it is." _

_"De tings you do and have, I was taught, distract from my calling. Friends, school... even family."_

In that one moment everything became clear for her. The anger in her died away and she became very still and quiet. She turned and walked away not looking back even when Spike called out to her. She was lost in her own thoughts. She _was_ pushing everyone away, trying to handle it all on her own. Her friends, her family how long would they be able to cope with her like that before they couldn't anymore? What if she focused herself so intently, fought so hard, so viciously that she forgot why she was fighting? Forgot about Giles and Willow? Forgot about her mother and even her absentee father? Forgot about Dawn?

In that moment as she walked out of the cemetery she vowed never to forget, but even then she felt as if she might have lost her Heart. One last lone tear dropped from her lashes and fell to the grass below and her thoughts once more, unbidden, drifted to her absent friend Xander.

* * *

Chapter 5

**Cheyenne Mountain Complex - Colorado - February 15th, 2001**

"No, that's what you're not getting, Major. I bet science can go a long way to helping us understand just about anything in the world, but unless you can get your head around magic no amount of science is going to explain any of this stuff." Xander tried hopelessly to clarify. He stopped suddenly as Carter sidestepped and turned to face him effectively blocking his route down the corridor. Xander sighed in frustration and braced himself for the oncoming barrage. This is what he got for setting foot outside his office.

It had all been very simple. Several months ago on a standard reconnaissance mission SG-2 had turned up ruins of a temple that once belonged to the worshipers of Ra. SG-1 was sent to investigate since Colonel O'Neill and Daniel were the only members of the SGC who had any previous dealings with Ra at all. Upon arrival it was clear that the planet, like the temple, had been abandoned long ago and after finding nothing else of interest the mission focused solely on the ruins. They brought back at least a dozen stone tablets as well as video of all the writings on the temple walls and even a few ancient scrolls that were sealed in a tomb along with some trinkets. Since then, whenever they weren't offworld, Daniel and Xander spent their time studying and translating whatever they could. As of yet nothing overly significant had turned up. When Carter had caught up with him Xander had been on his way to see Daniel for some help with a translation he was doing on one of the tablets. His Goa'uld was still a little rusty. First though he had to try and explain everything to Carter for the umpteenth time. For an astrophysicist she was a little slow on the uptake.

"Okay let's start off easy," Xander said as they continued walking. "Nirrti didn't breed the vampires. A vampire cannot give birth to a child, for all intents and purposes they become sterile, or infertile once they're turned and their body dies. What she was doing was breeding humans to try and strengthen certain genetic traits and then having them turned by vampires she kept for just that purpose. With me so far?" Carter nodded and Xander went on. "So on to Vampires 101, again. The only way to be turned is for a vampire to drink someone's blood and then get them to drink some of their blood." Sensing Carter was about to ask a question he held up his hand in protest. "I don't know what it is about that particular sequence of events that causes a person to become a vampire so stop asking. If I come across an explanation I'll let you know.

"What I do know is that once the person is turned, or sired whichever term you prefer, their body dies and their soul is released. During the day or so in-between when the body dies and the vampire rises a demon takes up residence, or that is what I've been led to believe. It may be the case that the demon is just a personality without a soul, or conscience, I don't have enough information to make a call on that one yet." Xander sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose. Now he was about to get into the almost wholly theoretical part of the explanation and this was just about where he lost Sam every time.

"We don't know why a vampire comes back to life. It could be the power of the demon, which makes it purely mystical, or it could be something in the blood of the vampire that sired it that makes its way through the bloodstream and affects the body on a biological level. In that case it would be strictly scientific. In my opinion the truth probably lies somewhere in the middle. A little of both." Carter couldn't remain silent any longer and spoke up.

"But a Goa'uld symbiote requires a living host in order to survive. We've seen proof that once the host dies the symbiote dies with it and vice-versa. So therefore the reality of the Goa'uld vampire is impossible." Xander grinned and his eyes twinkled for a moment.

"What's the golden rule?" he asked.

"Where magic's involved, nothing is impossible." Carter answered dutifully if not a bit annoyed.

"Exactly. But you are partially right. A symbiote can't be placed inside a vampire, because the body is already dead and it won't support it. However if a host with a Goa'uld already inside it is turned by a vampire, whatever it is that brings a vampire back in the first place and continues to keep it alive, for lack of a better word, also does the same for the symbiote." He could see that Carter was having a hard time accepting that explanation again so he took the opportunity of her momentary confusion to slip into Daniel's office.

Daniel looked up as Xander crept in and then peeked around the door before turning fully into the room. "Sam waylay you in the hall again?" he asked.

"Yep." Xander confirmed as he strolled over and set a stack of papers down in front of the archeologist. "I came by 'cause I need some help with a translation." Daniel adjusted his glasses and settled in to read the portion of the top page Xander was indicating. "The last tablet we brought back from P2X-909 talks about Ra and his time here on Earth, but before he came to Abydos. Then it deals with his arrival on 909 and another lesser god who had been watching over the planet in his absence. I assume that means a lesser Goa'uld who served Ra. Apparently there was some kind of dispute and… what's this word here?"

"Banished." Daniel supplied. Xander snapped his fingers.

"Of course. Ra banished the other Goa'uld for their insolence. What I can't seem to figure out is where they were banished to, or what the name of the Goa'uld was." Daniel studied the writings for several minutes then got up and went over to his bookcase.

"This sounds familiar. There might have been reference to it in one of the tablets I translated earlier…" he trailed off as he pulled a notebook from the shelf and began to flip through it quickly. He sat back down and bent down so close to the page that Xander was sure his nose must have been touching it. He read quickly, turning pages as he went and finally just as Xander was ready to leave to get something to eat from the mess Daniel's head shot up. "I've got it!" he exclaimed. "The Goa'uld's name was Sekhmet. Now in Egyptian mythology Sekhmet was the daughter of Ra and the goddess of war and vengeance. It seems that in Ra's absence she tried to poison the minds of his followers on 909 against him. When he returned he was furious and he had her banished to…. uh…. the closest translation is 'the world where the veils are parted' and then…. something about 'infernus'?" Xander shot to his feet and grabbed his papers from the desk.

"Call the Colonel and General Hammond. We need to have a briefing now."

"What? Why?"

"I'll explain when I get there. I have to pick up some things from my office." Xander said as he dashed out the door leaving a stunned Daniel in his wake.

* * *

Everyone was seated around the conference table as Xander entered the briefing room, his arms laden with books and papers. "What exactly is the meaning of all this, Lieutenant Harris?" General Hammond asked.

"I'm sure the kid has a good reason, General, or else he wouldn't have got Daniel to call us all down here." O'Neill said.

"I do." said Xander, out of breath. "There's a Goa'uld here on Earth." The entire room went silent.

"Are you certain, Xander Harris?" Teal'c asked.

"Positive."

"Well how did this happen? We haven't seen any signs of any Goa'uld ships and it couldn't have come through the Stargate." Hammond exclaimed.

"We wouldn't have, Sir. This Goa'uld has been here for centuries. She was banished here and has had no way of getting off the planet."

"Sekhmet?" asked Daniel.

"Yes. I found references in my books to a place where the veil between this world and the next is allowed to open. That was what Daniel translated from the tablet about where this Goa'uld was sent and when he translated one word as infernus it all clicked. The tablet was talking about the planet that had a doorway to another dimension. Infernus – inferno – Hell. The Hellmouth. The planet was Earth."

"Wait," interrupted Carter, "why would Ra send anyone here? Especially another Goa'uld?"

"Well the Stargate would have been buried by then." Daniel surmised. "And since Sekhmet was the daughter of Ra he knew they would not worship her after revolting against him. So there was no way off the planet and no way for her to turn the population to her favour."

"Okay, so we know that it was sent here. What makes you think it's not dead?" O'Neill posed.

"Because around the time that Sekhmet was banished a minor cult here on Earth began to grow in membership. It was an aberrant group that worshipped a demon-goddess named Glorificus. The cult still exists today, although many of its followers were wiped out in a massive demonic war about a thousand years ago."

"And you believe that this Glorificus they worship is the Goa'uld Sekhmet?"

"I'm certain of it, General." The room was quiet again and Xander took a seat next to Daniel. Finally Jack broke the silence.

"We have to do something, General."

"I agree, Colonel, but what? We can't exactly just start randomly searching the planet for this thing." The General turned to Xander, "Do you have any more materials that would be of any help, Lieutenant?" All eyes in the room turned to Xander and for a moment he was lost in thought.

"I don't have anything more here that could help us narrow the search, Sir. But I know someone who can help and who probably has the relevant volumes I'd need to check." Hammond stood up, Jack, Sam and Xander followed suit.

"Very well. SG-1 you have a go. Consider this a recon mission. A plane will be prepped and ready to depart from Andrews in one hour." Hammond turned to Xander. "Where exactly will you be going?"

"Home."


End file.
